Video Conferencing has become a massive advantage to a lot of people and companies in terms of communication. Although there are tons of success stories about video conferencing, there are those other parts of video conferencing which are otherwise known as the disadvantages. Which are commonly not spoken of to customers.
The most common disadvantages to video conferencing are:
- Time Zones: At times if you need to have a international video conference, you need to schedule the meeting to occur during the same time of the other participants.
- Training: Although a lot of technical equipment has become easy to use, there are still people out there, especially the newcomers to video conferencing who will need training.
- Cost of systems: We will be discussing this area later in this blog. For some, they go a cheaper route by having a system for free. This can become a danger, as users will be limited to certain features on the equipment.
- Personalised: There is a common debate out there at the moment between normal face to face meetings which we are accustomed to, and there are video meetings which companies are heading towards. We recently wrote a blog about face to face versus video meetings where we discuss the differences.
Lets now take a look at some other disadvantages which you may not be familiar with:
1. Connectivity
This is a worldwide issue in terms of connections. Although some countries do have a faster bandwidth for the public and businesses opposed to others. It’s visible to take note that technology isn’t 100% reliable as we assume it is. Internet connections can disconnect at any moment, especially in times when you need it most. Meeting Face to Face becomes more an advantage in this scenario as you don’t have to worry about internet connectivity.
Otherwise, unless you are willing to spend the extra cash on a reliable connection, go for it.
2. Cost
Video conferencing does save a lot of money for companies these days, it has helped reduce the number of travel expenses needed for employees and has increased productivity for businesses. One factor which does affect the video conferencing is the usage. The more your business will be using the equipment, over time it can get damaged from usage. This is common but only occurs after a lot of usages. For small businesses, it’s advisable you don’t get equipment which major businesses use, instead purchase a system which you can afford.
3. AV Quality
This can become an issue if the speakers aren’t speaking clearly or aren’t close enough for the microphone to pick up their voices. It’s advisable that you purchase a system with good quality speakers and microphone. Fortunately, with a lot of technology these days, HD is being adopted by the majority of these systems.
Video can be affected for various reasons, sometimes it can be the weather affecting your connection which will cause the picture quality to be poor. The same goes for your bandwidth, if you have a weak internet line, its guaranteed participants will become annoyed. Make sure that you get a system with good quality audio and visual features.
These are the most common disadvantages which we feel you should know when searching for an ideal video conferencing equipment. One should never feel ashamed to ask professionals for advice, you are more than welcome to contact us for assistance.
